Just wanted to write this thread as this and Kaiju-a-Gogo(though me and a friend also recently picked up Ground Pounders again) are some of the games I still find myself regularly playing.

In fact, after plugging my computer to a TV when I needed to clear my work desk for nondigital work, it was after discovering SOTS:The Pit had controller support that I've recently found myself binge-playing it again during evenings, sometimes while also doing personal artwork thanks to it's turn-based nature.

The last playthrough I did, I managed to make it to Floor 18 before collapsing from a careless encounter with a giant poisonous snake as the Scout. Before that I made it to Floor 10 as the Seeker before starvation did me in. Nonetheless in both cases I managed to leave plenty of XP and loot in the stasis rooms for future characters to stumble upon.

I've been trying out the Lich in a recent active save. His mechanics are certainly unique I feel, and fitting of his 4X Zuul cousins in term of the aggression needed to "fuel" him so to speak. Probably not my "main" character since I always have difficulty playing villain characters in the long terms, but certainly mechanically fun to play.

Next playthrough, I'm thinking of giving either the Medic or the Prester Zuul a shot. I recall enjoying a bit the Prester, and I've actually yet to had time to try out the Medic in full since I purchased the DLC. But with starting to get more time for gaming and the Pit again, it's something I'm looking forward to.

As there as no ''international definition'', I go by the usual sources like Wiki. Permadeath is SUPPOSED to be essential and recipes handed over from game to game are IMO a violation of this basic principle. Gear passed on just the same.

Your game, your rules, definitely. Definitions don't change though.

ErinysSolForce Intelligence has great difficulty penetrating Liir society to that depth, for obvious reasons. fibioLack of scuba gear?

I have to say I certainly didn't expect things to turn out like they did when I made my post O_O

This said I have to say that my recent dipping my toes back in the Pit allowed me to find again what I enjoyed the most of the game. Sincerely, the stats system in The Pit rarely made feel confused like other games have had in the past, having just the right number of different stats and layer of complexity to feel complex yet without feeling overwhelming either(I can't recall which, but of the previous roguelikes I'd played before the Pit initially had something like 8 different core stats for characters, and all gears could affect as much as all of them in different ways).The skills system has always felt straightforward and very easy to grasp after just a bit of playing.

The gear in the Pit is also *very* approachable. Crafting could be something of a challenge without resorting to wiki, but that was more than compensated by the ability to retain recipes learned in previous runs. But overall, I don't think any item made me confused as to how it was to be used and what to expect from it. In a way, at times it actually felt almost as approachable as real-time games due to how easy things could be to "pick up and use". Only thing that really always gave me a difficult time managing has been the hunger meter on different characters(I like the fruits that slow down hunger consumption just for that alone).

Otherwise any deaths I've faced has been generally "I should have been more careful getting in there" or simple "Well, maybe it was not a great idea to try to melee the *most venomous snake in the game*. Ow."

Sincerely, The Pit for me feels as easy to get into and start playing than some of the First Person Shooters out there or hack and slash RPG like Diablo(both genres notable for being Real-Time based, too) , basically a game I can just pick up and start playing with little preparation and still feels like I have both a good time yet still feeling challenged.

Well, it depends. What I don't really like about the pit is how powerfull and unpredictable loot drops are. Its cool to have great guns, but having runs where you dont get any weapon drops is not only frustrating, but a waste of your time. To be fair, I dont play on normal anymore, but on hard there are plenty of runs that are screwed from the start, and is a slow grind until you have reached that point where your melee weapon has 1 durability and you are out of ammo. I think that aspect could use some rebalancing, maybe by making duct tape or similar "bad" repair items more common in the sequel, or some crappy weapons, melee or otherwise, that are easy to craft (bow, club and spear, for example) . Of course that depends on which character you start with, since psionic characters have infinite damage until they run out of food, which is why they are the ones that can win Seriously!?